Most blatant rip offs you've ever seen.

[Viennetta]

Firstly, I am aware that this may not be the most popular thing I could do, but im gonna defend Eragon, or rather the inheritance series in genreal.

Firstly, do NOT judge the books by the movie, it was killed by Hollywood who seem to baulk at the idea of complex plots or deep characters (ie Arya - very different in the book) in movies that are not so already assured to succeed that the will risk trying something new.

Secondly, although the plot started off as based on Star Wars (not a secret, Paolini states this in the intro to book 3), the plot does get much better and more original with time. I know "it gets better later" is a weak defence, but it does, so it's worth bearing with it.

Finally, there are some great original ideas and characters in the book - the completely new (to my knowledge, please correct me if im wrong) way he handles magic, and the witch Angela.

Anyway, rant over. Please correct anything I got wrong, but I quite enjoyed them so treat this post as it was intended, as a point of view not a fanboy "don't hurt my book" attack on other points of view.

damn i just got ninjaed -.-

Anyway when people start going THIS IS RIP OOOOOFFF *kicks movie to square hole*
They have habit to forget difference between rip off and loaning ideas.

good thing is that most of people have gone to real rip off where loaning... lets call them things that go like yathzees like god of war stamp. They are not the original but rely deeply on one game and use its working base mechanics to their own advantage which is loaning and good safe idea for game developer to try riding the wave.

And if we go to fantasy section it allways will go
*insert fantasy thing*---> rips off Tolkine/If asian go straight to part 3 ---> Rips off from dawn of time old myths, legends and folklore.

So the funny thing is that nothing new has born since ancient times... just ripping off and making it look new

I'd say loaning is where the simple idea can be found commonly throughout multiple different works from different periods. In this instance, use of the Hero's Journey as a basis for the story is no problem. The real problem is that he wasn't writing a Hero's Journey, he was just writing Star Wars but using names from Lord of the Rings and stealing wholesale his ideas of dragons and magic from other, far superior, works.

And if you're going to defend someone like CP from claims of plagiarism, you might start with all the scenes and dialogue copied directly from David Eddings. That's the most offensive part of it all.

OT: Anything by Gameloft, or whatever that company is that produces rip-offs of all big franchises. The utter lack of shame involved beggars my belief.

If I'm mistaken and it isn't Gameloft, then sincere apologies for this libel.

 

[zehydra]

This one's kind of old, but here it is:

Listen to the main melody of "Shakermaker" by Oasis.

 

[zehydra]

Every modern story is a re-telling of an older story.

Not necessarily.

Here:

Once I went to the zoo. The zoo was noisy, so I came back home and sat in front of the couch and ate doritos for two and a half hours. I was becoming drowsy on the couch, when all of a sudden a large walrus appeared in front of me and started to recite lines from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and it began to rain death.

What older story is that a retelling of?

 

[Guy32]

The Curious Case of Forrest Gump

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1897317

 

[Iwana Humpalot]

I love Star Wars, a lot, but I also love fantasy book as well so a few years ago I picked up a certain fantasy book that people had been saying was super duper good and was the best thing ever (this was back in middle school I think). This book as Eragon. So I read it, and I somewhat enjoyed it although I couldn't shake the feeling that I had already read this story before, that's when I realized that I had, it was Star Wars... with dragons.

It had everything, princess is attacked by bad guy, send away something for old wise master to retrieve, fresh faced farmboy finds it, finds old wise master, gets his family killed as a result, runs away to train with old master, finds rougeish man who helps them...

I could go on and on but I'd rather know your thoughts on the matter of not just how crappy the Inheritance books are but also what other things have you seen or read that was an obvious rip off of another, better book/movie/anything else you can think of.

OMG! You just ruined the whole book for me! Why didn't i see this rip off. Damn it! And i thought it was original..

OT: Saints row is rip-off from GTA, but i still love both game series.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Ever look at W40K Space Marines beside... well... space marines?

What was actually 1st? Cause Starcraft was released in 1998 dunno about 40k though.

1987.

And to point out the tyranid/zerg comparison with pictures...

Not defending blizz, but the reasoning why they are ripoffs is because "Warcraft" and "starcraft" were originally going to be Warhammer and W40K games, respectively. Not sure what happened, but eh, I'm not complaining, as I'm quite happy with SC2 and Dawn of War, separately, thank you very much.

 

[Vykrel]

I saw dis movie at blockbuster called "Paranormal Entity". I lol'd.

that movie, and many other ripoff were made by a studio called "The Asylum"

so yeah, all their stuff

and all Gameloft titles

and those knockoff game consoles like the Chintendo Vii or the Polystation.

Edit: and speaking of the polystation, i remember that New Zealand TV3 ad that ripped off one of Sony's Kevin Butler PS3 ads. (montage)

 

[teh_Canape]

Somehow, yes:

Spoiler: More pictures comparing it and Oblivion

And yes, that's just the Oblivion rip-offs...

Spoiler: Unreal Tournament

Just Google around for threads made on the likes of NeoGaf [http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310683] when it was released.

no bro, you got it all wrong

this is genius, you see, it implies that Unreal Tournament and Oblivion take place in the same universe, so that game is in charge of making the connections and giving sense to it

 

[ZtH]

Digimon...

*Looks both ways and runs!*

Actually Digimon came out first so Pokemon is the ripoff in that pair. Either way once you get beyond the surface level they're pretty different.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Spoiler

Ever look at W40K Space Marines beside... well... space marines?

What was actually 1st? Cause Starcraft was released in 1998 dunno about 40k though.

1987.

And to point out the tyranid/zerg comparison with pictures...

Not defending blizz, but the reasoning why they are ripoffs is because "Warcraft" and "starcraft" were originally going to be Warhammer and W40K games, respectively. Not sure what happened, but eh, I'm not complaining, as I'm quite happy with SC2 and Dawn of War, separately, thank you very much.

As far as I can tell, only Warcraft was a direct copy of Warhammer.

Do you have any links or sources that StarCraft was supposed to be W40K? I mean... StarCraft was based on the Warcraft II engine, not the original, which makes in unlikely that Games Workshop had anything to do with it.

Not trying to be mean spirited, just wondering.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Everything is a rip-off of something else. Nothing is ever original.

Eragon isn't ripping of Star Wars or whatever else people claim it to. It's just using a very well-used series of tropes. Just like everything else. There are very few things that haven't already been done in stories before.

Um...using the exact same tropes in the exact same way in the exact same order...that's ripping off.

Sure, nothing is totally original, but the trick is to take old stuff and do something new with them. Or, alternatively, to take from more than one old thing, and jumble the parts together differently...if you take form one, it's plagiarism, if you take from many, it's research.

[/quote]

As I understand it, that particular nid didn't come out until alot later than most of them,
Starcraft was already around by then.

Of course, nids are Aliens mixed with dinosaurs anyway.

 

[Comrade_Beric]

Starcraft = Warhammer

Yep, Zerg = Tyranids

Yes, but let's not forget where GW got the Tyranids in the first place. I dare say that Blizzard didn't rip off 40k so much as they just ripped off the same source 40k did.

I said right from the beginning that Starcraft was nothing more than AvP: the RTS.

Battletech/Robotech.
Oh, FASA, you thieving bastards.

Shorthand recap: FASA got permission to use the images from the Japanese creators of the Macross series, but when they made toys, Harmony Gold (the guys who make Robotech from those same images) sued, claiming they had exclusive rights to the images within the US. FASA and Harmony Gold settled out of court basically agreeing that FASA would stop using any and all Macross images, and Harmony Gold agreed to not sue anymore. Come to find out, FASA probably would have won in court, but it doesn't matter anymore, the settlement is final and binding and no matter how many times Battletech changes hands, that settlement is carried over with it.

 

[D_987]

this is genius, you see, it implies that Unreal Tournament and Oblivion take place in the same universe, so that game is in charge of making the connections and giving sense to it

Really? Wow, I'm amazed a game was able to combine the lore and universes of:

Morrowind.
Oblivion.
Unreal Tournament 2004 and 2003.
Diablo II
Thief: The Dark Project.
Thief: Deadly Shadows.
A CryENGINE2 Tech Demo.
Silent Hill 4: The Room.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
Painkiller.
Painkiller: Battle out of Hell.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth.
Hexen.
World of Warcraft.

And that's not including the films they stole footage from too...truly genius...

 

[teh_Canape]

this is genius, you see, it implies that Unreal Tournament and Oblivion take place in the same universe, so that game is in charge of making the connections and giving sense to it

Really? Wow, I'm amazed a game was able to combine the lore and universes of:

Morrowind.
Oblivion.
Unreal Tournament 2004 and 2003.
Diablo II
Thief: The Dark Project.
Thief: Deadly Shadows.
A CryENGINE2 Tech Demo.
Silent Hill 4: The Room.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
Painkiller.
Painkiller: Battle out of Hell Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth.
Hexen.
World of Warcraft.

And that's not including the films they stole footage from too...truly genius...

indeed, that's the work of a god

almost brings a tear to my eye

 

[foryth]

Im surprised noone has mentioned Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby and that ripping off Bowie/Queen Under Pressure.

 

[k-ossuburb]

I love Star Wars, a lot, but I also love fantasy book as well so a few years ago I picked up a certain fantasy book that people had been saying was super duper good and was the best thing ever (this was back in middle school I think). This book as Eragon. So I read it, and I somewhat enjoyed it although I couldn't shake the feeling that I had already read this story before, that's when I realized that I had, it was Star Wars... with dragons.

It had everything, princess is attacked by bad guy, send away something for old wise master to retrieve, fresh faced farmboy finds it, finds old wise master, gets his family killed as a result, runs away to train with old master, finds rougeish man who helps them...

I could go on and on but I'd rather know your thoughts on the matter of not just how crappy the Inheritance books are but also what other things have you seen or read that was an obvious rip off of another, better book/movie/anything else you can think of.

Ever read Joseph Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces? Every "hero" story will have those elements in them in some form or another, it's a concept that's been around long before the written word was ever invented. George Lucas himself has acknowledged Campbell and the mythological influences cited in his book.

So, no, what you're describing isn't a rip-off in the slightest as I could regress back to stories of Osiris, Prometheus, the Buddha, Moses, and Christ; and there will always be similarities between them. I could just as easily tell you that Star Wars is a "rip-off" of ancient Japanese hero stories since in most Japanese stories, a young man would train to be a samurai by studying under a master. The master would be an old hermit. He might not even be recognized as a master at first. The training was different than we would expect. The student was taught to be a samurai through everyday activities. The movie the Karate Kid is also based on this tradition. In it, the kid learns basic moves by waxing a car and painting a fence.

Lucas made the old hermit into a shrunken muppet. In keeping with the Japanese tradition, we see Luke running through the swamp with Yoda on his back and doing other physical activities but we never see him taught to use the lightsaber, much the same as with Japanese tradition.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Zinda. It's an Indian movie.

If you've been watching a certain Korean movie, tell me if these scenes seem familiar:

Spoiler

 

[Sovvolf]

Anyone remember the Heroes of Victory game? Its was a Midway game which came out around the time of COD3 I think... It was pretty much a shameless rip off.

Anyway regarding Earagon and Star Wars... First off... I haven't read Earagon so I don't know the story however it seems like its shared quite a lot of influence from what influenced Star Wars . The fact is, its just a basic story structure that had been out way before Star Wars. Probably follwing the whole "Heroes with a thousand faces" routine. Star Wars it self was an homage to quite a lot of films. Ranging from films like Metropolis and Flash Gordon to Japanese films of which I can't remember the names.

This is true to most of Lucas's films, Indiana Jones had a few Zorro influences in it among other things. A lot of films do it.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Spoiler

Ever look at W40K Space Marines beside... well... space marines?

What was actually 1st? Cause Starcraft was released in 1998 dunno about 40k though.

1987.

And to point out the tyranid/zerg comparison with pictures...

Not defending blizz, but the reasoning why they are ripoffs is because "Warcraft" and "starcraft" were originally going to be Warhammer and W40K games, respectively. Not sure what happened, but eh, I'm not complaining, as I'm quite happy with SC2 and Dawn of War, separately, thank you very much.

As far as I can tell, only Warcraft was a direct copy of Warhammer.

Do you have any links or sources that StarCraft was supposed to be W40K? I mean... StarCraft was based on the Warcraft II engine, not the original, which makes in unlikely that Games Workshop had anything to do with it.

Not trying to be mean spirited, just wondering.

Yea, technically it was just Warcraft that was originally going to be Warhammer, but at some point or another, a few gents left Games Workshop (only name I know off the top of my head is Andy Chambers) and joined Blizzard, and then "Starcraft" happened. Probably just a few of the artists, but I don't have sources for this, and I am just too damn tired to go digging, as I just keep finding random "Starcraft Vs 40K" topics and such.

EDIT- Well, here's Andy's wiki page, atleast. I know, not a whole lot, but it is some fuel for thought. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Chambers